Final Fantasy: Titulus Magia
by Senna Strife
Summary: In a world overrun by malicious magic users, it is up to five young, chosen heroes to seek out the mysterious crystals and save the world from falling into turmoil. This is an original Final Fantasy story that follows mostly original characters and draws inspiration from all Final Fantasy games. please enjoy!
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Long ago, before the age of man, existed an all-powerful goddess by the name of Vesta. This goddess created the present world of Crystallos. She created luscious forests, dazzling ice caverns, majestic mountain ranges, ever-flowing rivers, glistening lakes, and vast oceans. To inhabit the land, Vesta also created a variety of animals that adapted to their respective environments. At first, Vesta was overjoyed but she quickly realized that she had failed to create beings that she could communicate and interact with on a more personal level than with the mute animals. To remedy this, she created humans in her own image, but she removed herself from Crystallos to allow the humans to develop and evolve. After some years had passed, and her creations had established thriving life, communication, and structure, Vesta took on a human form and decided to live amongst the people. While on Crytallos, Vesta travelled far and wide to fully experience all the landscapes, all the sights, everything that the humans had to offer while living on the land she granted them. During her travels, she also made sure to spread the story of the creator goddess, but unbeknownst to the people, she was telling the story of her life.

Despite her being a goddess, in her human for Vesta was susceptible to all the same emotions humans were, especially love. When she visited the forest continent of Viridi, Vesta met a man who, just like herself, was a world traveler with no settled home. The man was an enigma to Vesta, so during her time in Viridi, the two would often exchange stories of their lives and adventures. Eventually, they fell in love, but the man was unaware of Vesta's secret. One night, while under a star filled sky, the man proposed to Vesta, which forced her to tell him the truth of who she really was. At first, the man refused to believe her, but after performing a miracle in the forest, he believed Vesta and still accepted her. The two decided to marry, and together, Vesta and her husband had eight children, all of whom were born as Demi-Gods with incredible magical abilities.

Not long after the birth of their eighth child, a terrible, unidentified illness befell Vesta's husband leading to his untimely death. Struck with grief, Vesta decided to return to her true home in the Cosmos where she would be far away enough from human affairs while still keeping on an eye on her beloved creations. However, before leaving, she offered for her children to join her so that they would not have to live through what she did, and they could all live in peace, happiness, and harmony in the sky. The children refused the offer and elected to stay on Crystallos to live amongst the humans. Vesta respected her children's decision so left them on their own. The children lived amongst the humans, travelled, and even had families of their own. And thus, magic was spread across Crystallus.

For many years to come, the children born into the world who were descendants of Vesta and her eight children were born with innate magical abilities. Yet, with this ability, there were those who were noble and used their powers for good, and those who used their powers for malevolence, destruction, and selfishness. Many humans were abusing their powers, which upset Vesta as she watched it all unfold from the Cosmos, but she also saw humans using their powers with noble intent. And so not wanting to punish the entirety of mankind and strip them of their magical powers, Vesta decided to seal away her eight children to stop the spread of magical beings. She imprisoned them in crystals, which she hid all around the world in different continents where they would be easily discovered. And while this did dramatically decrease the number of magic users in Crystallos, it could not stop everything. The more powerful magic users, the mages, formed an evil organization known as The Magicae. The leaders of the Magicae spread across each continent, established military forces, and outlawed magic use for civilians. They even enslaved citizens in order to find the lost crystals of Vesta's children in order to obtain unlimited power. However, when Vesta sealed them away, she anticipated the sinful mages coming for them, and so she created a seal where only the chosen ones would be able to find the crystals. And so it seemed as if the crystals had been lost forever..


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

"Ngh...why...no!" Kanna shot up in her hotel bed breathing heavily and drenched in sweat. She put a hand over her chest to try to calm her rapid breathing as sweat droplets fell from her head and onto the covers of the hotel bed she was sleeping in. Then, her partner in crime, who had been sleeping in the bed beside her, groaned and rolled over as he sat up and looked over at his friend. He shook his head as he got up to go over to her before sighing and asking, "Was it the dream again?"

Kanna nodded as her breathing started to settle, and she placed a hand on her forehead to feel just how much she had been sweating in her sleep. She would have the same dream every so often that would startle her to the core. It was a dream of memories that she wished she could forget, but they would always haunt her at night no matter how hard she repressed them. And not only did the dreams affect her, but they also affected her best friend, Cid, who had taken it upon himself to travel with her in order to find other magic users like herself that would be willing to stand up the Magicae.

"I'm sorry, Cid. I always wake you up don't I," said Kanna with a sad and apologetic tone.

"It's no big deal really. I'm used to it by now...besides, its not often I see you so shaken up," said Cid as he teasingingly nudged his friend on the shoulder.

Had anyone else joked about it, Kanna would have been furious, but Cid knows Kanna's past so she gives him a pass and laughing about it sometimes is the only way for Kanna to be able to go back to sleep. "Whatever! I have to put on a brave face since you hide behind me all the way time whenever we fight!"

"Hey, if staying behind the strong magic user is how I'm gonna survive, I'll gladly hide behind anytime. I am not ashamed," proclaimed Cid. "But in any case, lets get back to sleep. We'll have to be out of here first thing in the morning if we want to catch the train to Prominence."

Cid then went back to his bed, and Kanna went to the bathroom to shower quickly before going back to sleep. The only train to Prominence, a small city in the mountain continent, was early in the morning, and they had to catch it so they wouldn't be stranded in Viridi for another week.

 _ **~15 Years Earlier~**_

"Under order of Mage Nensho! Cara and Ren Libera, hand over your daughter or you will be gunned down for conspiracy crimes against the Magicae!"

Soldiers had surrounded the two magic users, Cara and Ren Libera, with the intention of sparing their lives if they were willing to sacrifice their daughter, Kanna. Cara and Ren were both prominent magic users who also headed the Magicae Resistance Squad, but their daughter was a real magic prodigy. Somehow, word rumors reached the Magicae that the Libera's had an incredibly talented daughter, so naturally, they wanted to capture her and train her to become of member of their organization some day. However, Cara and Ren were more than willing to risk their lives if it meant their daughter had a chance to live out her life.

"We're really sorry, but we just can't let you do that," said Cara as she brushed her long, auburn hair back and readied herself into fighting stance.

Ren shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, "Do you really think we'd let a lot of useless Magicae dogs take our daughter? What kind of parents would that make us," declared Ren as he flashed a sarcastic smirk to all the soldiers.

Suddenly, the soldiers prepared their weapons and aimed at the two lovers. "Hand her over! Or you don't leave here alive!"

The couple turned to each other with a hint of sadness in their eyes knowing that this may very well be the last time the two stood next to each other alive. They nodded at each other, acknowledging that they both knew what to do, while their daughter looked on in crippling fear at the scene in front of her. Kanna had been hiding behind her father the whole time but still in clear view of everything that was going on. Although she was too young to completely understand what was going on, she knew in her heart that her parents were in trouble.

And before the soldiers could fire their first shots, Ren used his ice magic to create a thick ice wall as a barrier. As soon as it was up, the only sounds that could be heard were the gun shots attempting from the soldiers attempting to break down the wall.

Kanna, shaking and crying from fear, clutched onto her dad's leg as her mother knelt down beside her. "Kanna, honey, I know this is scary, and I know that you probably don't really know whats going on, but Mommy and Daddy need you to run as far away from here as possible. Keep running until you can't anymore."

Between sobs Kanna asked, "B-but, what's gonna happen to you and daddy?"

Her mom flashed her warm smile as she placed a hand on Kanna's cheek before replying, "Mommy and Daddy have to work right now Kanna, but we'll see you later. Now be a good girl and run."

"Yeah, Kanna! Mommy and Daddy are strong! We just need some time, but we'll be faster if you run away ok? It's time for you to show how strong you are too, sweetie, " said Ren as he was focusing his energy to uphold the integrity of the ice wall.

With words of encouragement, the young Kanna wiped her tears and ran away as fast as she could. As she ran, she could hear the sounds of fire and ice magic produced from her parents as well as the gun shots from the soldiers. But before she was completely out of eye shot from them, she turned around to get one last glance, but what she saw would scar her for the rest of her life. Kanna had turned around to see her mom shot by the Magicae soldiers as her dad collapsed in despair beside her. The soldiers then closed in on her dad as he held her mom in his arms, but before Kanna could see what happened next, she ran away even faster. The whole time she was running, tears were uncontrollably streaming down her cheeks, and she could feel overwhelming tightness in her chest. But Kanna knew that for her parents sake, she had to keep running to get away no matter how badly she wanted to turn around and be beside them. She ran and ran until she couldn't run anymore, and luckily, no monsters had attacked her. When she got away, no soldiers had pursued her, so they most likely assumed that she would die out on her own while crossing the terrain alone.

She made her way into the next town over, but as a seven-year-old girl, there was no real place for her to go, so she spent the next few weeks of her life homeless and scavenging for food. Then one day, while Kanna was sitting on the side of the street, a young boy approached her. He was a little older than her, but by his messy appearance, Kanna assumed that maybe this boy was homeless just like her.

"Hey, what are you doing out on the street by yourself," asked the boy.

Skeptical of his intentions, Kanna simply put her head down and refused to answer him. She knew that soldiers wanted her, so she figured that it would be best if she kept her mouth shut.

"Can you even talk," asked the boy persistently.

Kanna refused to answer him again, so, as a peace offering, the boy pulled out an apple from the pocket of his shorts and gave it to Kanna. "You seem hungry, would you like this apple? I stole it from a fruit stand not too far from here, but the guy didn't even see me! Lucky, huh?"

Kanna looked at the shiny red apple offered to her and wasted no time grabbing and eating it seeing how it had been days since she last had food. The boy smiled as she ate and decided to sit next to her until she decided to talk. "Well, quiet girl, name's Cid. I've seen you a few times around here in the town central and figured I'd say hi!"

Kanna remained quiet, even after eating the apple, because she was still unsure of the boy next to her. He sighed as he looked over at her, since he was starting to get a little uncomfortable himself. "So...how old are you? How did you get here to Sunstra?"

Kanna looked at the boy next to her and figured that maybe he really was just being nice to her. She fidgeted a little and without looking up at the boy she said, "My name's Kanna. I'm seven and I'm from the next town over."

"She speaks! I was beginning to think you couldn't talk," said Cid. "And seven! You're like a little baby! I'm eleven, but ya didn't tell me how you got here...guess ya don't gotta tell me right away. But, Kanna, if you ever get hungry again, I can help ya get some food! My family doesn't have much but I'm sure my Mom and Dad wouldn't mind having a guest around! Whadya say?"

As Kanna finally looked up to meet the boy's eyes, Cid flashed her a genuine smile, and it was the first time in a while that someone even acknowledged Kanna's presence. So she accepted Cid's offer to meet his family. When they arrived at Cid's house, Kanna explained her situation to his parents, and they decided to shelter her until her parents hopefully returned. Unfortunately, her parents never ended up coming for her, so Cid's parents became like Kanna's second family but she never gave up hope that maybe, just maybe her parents had made it out alive and would come back for her.


End file.
